News Corp. posts $203 million net loss in fiscal fourth quarter

Media conglomerate News Corp. has attributed its $203 million net loss in the fiscal fourth quarter to MySpace's $680 million in operating and impairment. It experienced a net loss of $.08 per share, which is considerably worse than its reported $1.1 billion net profit ($.43 per share) in the year-ago quarter. Its operating profit for the year was a bit worse than anticipated due to the weak economy.

Adjusted operating income fell 30% to $948 million and revenue fell 11% to $7.67 billion. New Corp. foresees a revenue growth of 4% in fiscal 2010, despite flat ad revenue. It also expects adjusted operating profit to grow by an upper single-digit percentage from the fiscal year that recently closed.

News Corp. paid $580 million for MySpace in 2005, and has recently made some changes in response to the once-popular social network's waning traffic. Among other things, it has shuffled its leadership team, ditching co-founder Chris DeWolfe and picking up Owen Van Natta, a former Facebook executive – which overtook MySpace last April in unique visitors.